predictions for 2011: the caffeine crunch

The Four Loko alcohol/energy drink controversy put it over the top for me.

I predict that in 2011, America will be more conscious of caffeine intake, and that caffeine will be the next "cigarette," "carb," "trans fat" - the next demonized commodity. Caffeine-induced health problems will saturate the news, despite what probably is a strong Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts lobby, and soon enough, people will understand that... well, you got jacked.

Ever-increasing coffee sizes. The DD "Great One." Kids drinking Monster Energy drink for breakfast - the caffeine rush will come to and end and we'll remind ourselves 1) that sometimes it's best to treat yourself to good coffee, rather than the corner deli nonsense, and 2) that the normal size isn't a venti, or a Great One, but an eight-ounce cup.

How did we ever function with such high levels of caffeine surging through our systems? How did we not know better up until this point? We'll all be asking ourselves these questions during 2011, when we realize that we've been walking around over-caffeinated and dehydrated for as long as we can remember.

In college, sometimes I'd make coffee too strong, and you'd feel your heart racing in your chest as you tried to sit down at a desk and read or write. Nothing you could do but ride it out. After school, while working as a reporter, I found that the afternoon coffee became a regular occurence. It was easier to write while awake, but more difficult to focus. Caffeine triggers a gland that secretes a hormone that triggers a gland to produce adrenaline - you know, the stuff that allows boxers to stay in the ring, taking hits without feeling pain, or allows little old ladies to lift cars to free trapped children.

Recently, if you're like me, you limit your coffee intake to before noon, unless there's a specific reason not to - an evening work event or a date.

But I genuinely feel like we're ready to make this happen, that we're advanced enough to see this from a higher perspective and be conscious of our health, particularly the deleterious effects of caffeine.

So, want to see how much caffeine will kill 'ya? Check out Death by Caffeine, where you can enter your weight and see how much Pepsi, Monster, Starbucks and Snapple it'll take to take you down.

Chart courtesy of the I-guess-now-defunct Theory World.

Photo: Bob's Diner on a Saturday Morning

Bob's Diner, Roxborough, November 20th, 11:55am

Good and bad news for dogfish 120-min IPA

So, is a 3-hour drive (or a 2-hour drive...) worth it for a little Dogfish 120?

It should be.

This week, Sam and company down there at Dogfish said that after dumping an earlier bad batch of their famed high-octane 120-minute IPA, things are looking up for batches currently being brewed.

"If the next test batch of 120 goes well at the R&D brewery in our Rehoboth pub and you happen to be in the area you might want to swing by and try it," said an official Dogfish blog post.

There's still no definite time frame on a national release, but want to know when it'll be on tap down in De.?

You can find out by checking here.

Food and Politics

Election day usually means that I treat myself to some sort of politically themed alcoholic beverage.  I try to drink a few of them while I am ranting about the election returns and how this time I am serious about moving outside the United States.  This beverage of choice this year is the Dark and Stormy.  There is no shortage of symbolism in the drink's name, but I am drinking it out of desire and convenience.  I will also decide on a food option over the next few hours.  Either way, I think that the first Tuesday in November is always a fine excuse for something tasty.

I also wanted to use this post as an excuse to link up a post from the weekend.  Obama was in Philly on Saturday giving a speech to volunteers at Temple University.  On his way back from the speech he stopped by Famous Deli on 4th and Bainbridge.  The deli is widely known for its massive sandwiches that you end up eating for three days after.  It is also an essential stop on a Philly politics reality tour because of the many local officials that go there on a regular basis.  If you were to goto Famous Deli right now you would see a lot of politicians and poll workers stopping for an election day meal.  I had dinner there on Thursday night when Bill Clinton was here campaigning.  I thought there would be an off chance that he might stop by the deli after his appearance, but he did not.  Instead of Clinton I was able to see retired District Attorney Lynne Abraham chowing down in her stonewashed jeans.  Sort of a humorous consolation.

I am certainly not the first to mention the food and politics of Famous Deli, but in the spirit of election day it is a nice reminder.

link: Philadelphia Lunch Stop: President Obama Visits "Famous 4th Street Delicatessen" [Obama Foodorama]

The Moto-Wheeling Mario Batali

10/28/10, 8:56 a.m. (16th Street and 5th Avenue)

Stock: Make Some

What you're looking at is this: 1 (one) lobster carcass, frozen shrimp shells saved from the last few months, 2 (two) leftover pickerel fillet pieces, including tails and some meat, 2 (two) large cut up white onions, a handful of baby carrots, 1 (one) half lemon, 1 (one) fist-full of celery roughly chopped (if chopped at all), several dashes salt, a pinch of peppercorns, and whatever herbs that are in your cabinet.

Or on your windowsill, if that's not too much to ask.

In the past, I've made stock using fresh herbs wrapped in a bouquet of cheesecloth (which comes out easily like a teabag at the end). Either way, the process is always the same.

1) Bring all to a boil
2) Simmer on low heat with lid on for as long as you can
3) Strain

Freeze it, 'fridge it, make ice pops with it - see if I care. But what I can promise is that not only will your house or apartment smell like you've been slaving over a stove for a decade, but your chowder, gumbo, soup, and bisque recipes will also absolutely glow with flavor thanks to your easily made, homemade, stock.

So, on the theory side, think this: stock is a broth, used in place of water. Usually, stocks are made from a combination of meat and vegetables. Any combination. You can make a delicate stock or a stronger stock, depending on the amount of time you leave it on the stove. Particularly with red meat stocks, you'll want to scoop off the coagulated blood and proteins that rise to the top, but leave the fat that surfaces. The fat will help during the cooking process and can be removed afterward if you're about to cook with your stock. If you freeze it, keep the fat on the top of the stock and freeze, removing it later on when you do use the stock.

cooking on a fire: lamb with root vegetables and asparagus

If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what will.

This summer, I rebuilt what was my grandfather's outdoor fireplace. As a kid, during summers, we'd use the thing occasionally for marshmallows, bonfires and such. This past summer, I cooked on it once, then was instantly captivated by the whole idea of it, which sparked the rebuilding plans. I installed a lip on either side of the bricks to stick out just one inch (maybe less) to perfectly support a grill rack over the flames. It was among my proudest experiences of the season.

Thursday night, two days before putting this delightful piece of meat on the fire, I purchased it from the local Key Food - a half leg of lamb - for about $18. It weighed close to 3 lbs., actually at least three pounds. That night I went home, pounded out about 7 cloves of garlic in a mortar and pestle, rubbed said garlic on outside of lamb with sea salt and pepper and wrapped the whole thing up with plastic wrap. But not before some good olive oil and four branches of windowsill-grown rosemary.

Then, this weekend, I transported this puppy up to New Jersey, got some coals going, put 'er in a tin foil tent/package, added a little more olive oil and let it sit for about three hours.

All week, cooking on a fire had been on my mind, and I was originally thinking brisket, but settled on lamb, which is one of my favorite foods. It was just me and Dad heading up to the lake, and I was pretty sure he didn't care for lamb all that much (turns out he doesn't mind it at all; I was wrong) so I figured there'd also be some steaks or burgers going over the flames, too, but nope. Friday, mind you, Friday, I read in the Times this whole, long glorious article by Michael Pollan about a 36-hour outdoor cooking feast he recently took part in.

It was that article that gave me the idea to cook some root vegetables in the ashes and embers, and on the way up, I picked up some turnips and parsnips, along with some asparagus I figured I'd toss on the grating.

So, some logistical things you'd probably secretly wonder/worry about regarding cooking outdoors.

1. First, you aren't really cooking over true flames. Flames provide much more heat than you'd need, but not the kind of prolonged, steady heat that you'd need to cook a piece of meat that's of any substantial size.

2. If you're just starting out, use charcoal. Buy a medium-sized bag of charcoal and pile them up in a pyramid if you don't have one of those metal charcoal-lighting devices. Because it is more fun, I prefer to do is start a true wood fire, then pile on the charcoal, add in some more wood, then have sort of a mix.

3. To do the actual cooking, spread the charcoals around the outer base of the fire pit, so that you're cooking in the middle, where there isn't too much heat. You can always replenish the charcoal or stir it around if you feel there really isn't much any heat in the middle, but a good indicator is this - the middle cooking space is too hot if you can't hold your hand there for more than three seconds.

4. It helps to not touch anything. Anything at all. Make sure the fire's OK, but other than that, walk away, get a cold one, or do some fishing.

5. Think about finishing your food - meat or otherwise - over true flames to impart a smoky, elemental flavor. It's worth putting in the extra firewood and getting the heat up, plus it's enjoyable.

So, I did all that. Somewhere in the middle of the lamb cooking, I took the turnips/parsnips and literally threw them into the ashes. No washing, no cutting, no oil, nothin'. Only thing was that I left them in while finishing the lamb (which - pictured above - I had unwrapped from the tin foil and placed directly on the grating) and grilling the oil-salt-pepper asparagus.


At least one turnip turned out looking like a burnt golf ball, as did half a parsnip.

The lamb finishing went really well. It sizzled up and turned golden brown and crusty. I turned it over a few times to hit all sides, then threw in the towel. Done.

Yes, I let the lamb sit while Dad prepared some emergency lentil soup, but there was no need for a backup plan. It was perfect. Medium for me on about half of it, well-done for Dad on the other half. Easy as that. The crusted outside was crispy, mildly salty, and delicious. All was heartwrenchingly juicy. That old, classic, comforting lamb flavor in a beautiful piece of meat cooked in a rustic, smoky way outside in the fall.

And the veg.? Great. You could taste the flames on the asparagus and you got a mild, tasty little char on the root stuff, which was great. They came out roasted just the same as if roasted inside an oven. There will be more ash/ember cooking in my future, and there should be in yours, too.

Landon Donovan picks Jim's. David Beckham eats $100 cheesesteak?

Who eats a cheesesteak, and where they eat it at is usually pretty unexciting to me.  However, the LA Galaxy are in Philly this week to play the Union on Thursday.  That means there could at least be a few solid David Beckham and Landon Donovan sightings.  According to Landon Donovan's Twitter feed he grabbed a steak around 1am on Wednesday morning from Jim's Steaks on South Street.

Landon followed up with a later post to say: "Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm, That was delicious! First cheesesteak was a massive success...perhaps I'll try Geno's or Pat's after the game tomorrow."

David Beckham also had a steak in Philly last night.  Him and his wife Victoria dined at Barclay Prime with a few teammates as well.  According to those connected with Barclay Prime, Beckham ordered the $100 cheesesteak.  The Barclay Prime cheesesteak made national news a few years ago with its upscale ingredients.  There is no direct mention of the steak on the current menu, but it was known to include "sliced Kobe beef, melted Taleggio cheese, shaved truffles, sauteed foie gras, caramelized onions and heirloom shaved tomatoes on a homemade brioche roll brushed with truffle butter and squirted with homemade mustard."  Whether or not, Beckham actually ordered the Barclay Prime cheesesteak, there is sure the contrast of menu options on your fork (or in your hand) in Philadelphia.

Learning to drink in public, appreciate heavy food, and wear a rain jacket while visiting the UK

In September I had a chance to return to London to visit a good friend.  I find that when traveling somewhere the second time through I get the chance to look past all the initial surprises and see deeper aspects of a place.  This time around I was specifically instructed to wander with special attention to English food and drink, and of course keep this blog in mind.  So using the lens of a camera I tried to shed the reputation, or find charm in the reputation, that English food is the worst in Europe.  London might not receive the accolades of nearby global culinary cities like Paris and Rome, but it offers options to delight the English working class, immigrants from the New Europe, or a visitor like me.

Full vegetarian English Breakfast at Counter Cafe in East London

For starters, the English are no strangers to drinking in public or eating a warm pub pie when the weather is cold and rainy.  They enjoy butter, warm beer, brown gravy, fried fish, malt vinegar, and the occasional vegetable - mushy peas.  Of course as a Philadelphia native, I cannot generalize since I have struggled my entire life with convincing people that not everyone eats cheese whiz.  The changing face of the global city shows that many are not afraid to welcome a variety of ethnic fare, some gentrification fare, Australian coffee roasters and plenty of dodgy kebab shops.  Despite its changing identity this is a city that still respects its traditional past.  It is very difficult to eat dinner after 10pm.  If you want quality fish, expect to eat it on the days that fishermen work.  When you look around you are sure to see this identity in the city's menu as it exists today.

Pimm's and Lemonade malt beverage from London corner grocery

Top 10 most interesting and unusual things found in the new Bay Ridge Key Food

(Bay Ridge Ave. between Ridge and Third Aves.)

With a neighborhood as international as Bay Ridge, when the new Key Food opened last year its shelves were stocked with ethnic foods of all types, side-by-side the generic grocery store items found everywhere. Here are the top ten most interesting and unusual items found within the confines of the store.

1) Butter Ghee - Clarified butter made from simmering unsalted butter to remove all the water content; ghee has a sacred role in Hindu libation and anointment rituals, but more commonly used in Pakistani cuisine as an ideal frying medium because of its super high smoke point - around 485-degrees F.

2) Chayote - No vegetable has more personality than chayote. They're pursed up like they have something to say but can't. When I walk by, I hear "MMmmm!!!!" It's a vegetable pear from Mexico that can be mashed, pickled, fried, boiled or eaten raw but tastes pretty bland on its own.

3) Zataar - A lemony, rich Arabic spice blend eaten as a simple, Lebanese breakfast; otherwise a leafy plant on its own, not unlike oregano.

4) Whole green cardamon - Used in both food and drink somehow; supposedly one of the great food medicines used to cure everything from kidney stones to snake and scorpion bites. Green cardamon seeds are more commonly ground up and used as a sweetener.

5) Tamarind in the pod - Eaten in many cultures, but prevalent in thai cooking; the seeds need to be taken out of the pod, soaked in water, then put through a serious strainer. Has a bittersweet flavor.

6) Tofu pups - The original vegetarian hot dog. So wrong. "A tasty tofu treat ready for all the toppings you can handle, without all the extra fat and cholesterol your body doesn't want to handle."

7) Lamb ribs - More of a farmstand treat than general supermarket fare, braise 'em, but watch out because they'll have less fat than pork ribs, so add some of your own for moisture's sake!

8) Lamb heads - Or as my Dad pointed out, Capozzelli. Dad's heard of this and even had it as a kid. Whole head here. Teeth, tongue sticking out dead. Eyeballs. Head. It's an exotic dish now, but, as you might guess, has roots in peasant food. Par-boil it, then bake it like a Thanksgiving turkey and serve with some spaghetti.


9) Cabra al Vino - Drunken Goat Cheese. Goat cheese submerged in a bath of wine, giving it a purple hue with a mild, sweet taste.

10) Bell and Evans Air-chilled chicken - I didn't become a vegan after reading Eating Animals, but I did give up chicken. Why? The water-chilled part. After being killed, most commercially made chicken is kept refrigerated by submersion in vats of chilled water for a period of hours. Sometimes the water's chlorinated, sometimes it's not. Either way, imagine what that looks like. Now imagine some of that sludge in your chicken. The USDA allows up to 8% of chicken weight to be from water absorbed during this process.

An omnivore forages in New Jersey

Foraging in Jersey: Hook-Caught Catfish with Greens

By Mike Benigno
for Eat* Like a Vegetarian

Last summer and this, I’ve been thinking more and more about foraging for wild food. Some time off, put away the watch, ditch the cell phone, live off the land. Or at least pretend to.

While it may have not worked out too well for Chris McCandless in Into the Wild and I haven’t read the Krakauer book that inspired the movie, I’ve been building a small library of “livin’-off-the-land” food books, with the centerpieces being two works by Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Blue Eyed Oyster, and Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Asparagus is Gibbons’ guide to living off of wild, foraged food, identifying and proselytizing about close to 50 types of hunter/gatherer treats found right here in the northeast.

At and around Kittatinny Lake, my grandfather used to forage for cardone, a green, leafy weed that grew about as big as a large fern. Staring out the window of the car, walking to get the mail or while rooting around the yard, he’d memorize where plants were and when it was harvest day he’d be on his hands and knees, knife in the ground, uprooting the plants before piling them high on the backyard table. The stems were breaded and fried like chicken cutlets and came off the frying pan like stringy celery but milder and coated in fried goodness – pure, down-home comfort. They were usually gone or close to gone before anyone had ever sat down at the table.

Last week, the catfish were good for hooking. Over the course of the week with a friend, we managed to hook over 20 pounds of catfish, the biggest being a 4-pounder, with several that were over 3 1/2. On Tuesday evening I picked through one of two good worm spots I discovered, foraged the bait and got out to fish the sunset still-water between 6:30 and 8 (the best daytime action). I was on my way back to the dock when I thought I’d try a spot just off a house directly across from ours. Sure enough, I landed a high-3 lb. catty, came home, relaxed, dispatched the thing, then filleted it in the backyard. Last few years, I’ve gotten filleting down to about ten minutes for a catfish, much less for a bass.

I used a sharp knife, a pot of ice to keep the filets chilled and fresh, and proceeded to first cut the head off, pull out the guts, slit the bottom, then cut one filet off as close and even as possible. I got both sides off in two clean pieces, flipped them, skinned the outside, put them back into the ice water, then went back for the bottom flaps which didn’t make the filet cut (two fatty pieces near the pectoral fins). Inside, I washed off all, made an egg wash, coated them in what was meant to be a coating for fried chicken that I’d picked up (a kit from Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller’s simple California restaurant), and put them into about a half-inch of hot stove-top oil until golden brown. I sat down outside with the golden filets with some horseradish sauce, along with a side of mixed collard greens and red kale, cooked in some bacon with onion.

The result was a modern day forage. I turned a few backyard worms into a catfish into a meal on a plate and sat in the same yard where my grandfather would stack up his wild plants. To boot, as I ate out back near the lake, the fish carcass still stood on the cleaning block.

Hey, this is America, right?

Mike Benigno is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed omnivore. He lives in Brooklyn where he can be found fishing in nearby Jamaica Bay with his video camera. He is the author of Lines In the Street, a blog about fishing in urban areas. He can be reached at mikebenigo[at]hotmail.com

dogfish 120 will have to wait, they say

The good folks over at Ski Bar, Bay Ridge, will no doubt verify this and probably be in mourning for the next few weeks, but according to Dogfish Brewery, the most recent batch of in-progress nectar-of-the-Gods, superbeer -120-minute IPA - will never see the light of day.

"Dozens of passionate people at Dogfish got out voted by millions of yeast cells and this batch will not be released," brewer Sam Calagione wrote in a press release. "This batch came in a bit under attenuated and got dinged on our sensory panel for dislocated flavors."

Sam and the Dogfish folks.... I can't blame them for not wanting to release an inferior product, and they promise that there'll be some 120 coming out before year's end, but in the meanwhile all you can do is sit back, grab some 90-minute or early released fall seasonal brew or something.

If you're like me, however, there's no substitute for the 120. About a week ago, I was singing its song to my favorite local barkeep over at the Ski, saying how, basically, 120-minute ruined beer for me forever. Once you've had a sip - or even a smell, for that matter - of this potent elixir, you'll know you'll never, ever, by more impressed by a beer. Last fall's batch ranked in at 22% ABV or, according to some, even higher. And let me tell you this - it's an experience. It took me and a friend close to 45 minutes to finish our pints, and each sip was like taking a shot of concentrated, rich, deep, dark beer. Sweet, potent and powerful. A sensory experience in a glass.

Buy it when you see it. Even if it costs $15 a pint. It's been a year now and I'm still talking about it.

Foraging in Philadelphia Links

Last summer I lived in Portland, Oregon where food literally grows from the sidewalks in front of you. It was an incredible experience to walk through the city and find places to eat plums or easily spot an abundant patch of lavender to use in your home. The city itself is a fortunate recipient of the unique climate of the Pacific Northwest. Rainy, mild winters provide plenty of moisture while the summer days and nights rarely fall to temperatures that will ruin the lush vegetation. Since my experience in Portland, a few friends have been intrigued by the idea of foraging. Their knowledge is greater than mine in this subject. Fortunately, urban foraging comes as an extension of an individual's desire to cut out the corporate food system and attempt to live in a more sustainable way. Below is a pretty impressive Google mash-up with sites for foraging within Philadelphia. You can also check out a solid collection of research and links over at Wild Foods.

Credit goes to Aaron for sending the links.

View Philadelphia Food Harvest Map in a larger map

bouillabaisse: why? because you want to

In our family, at Christmas Eve dinner, no matter where we are, my Mom brings the bouillabaisse. Mixed seafood, mussels, their shells, shrimp, calamari rings, slow-cooked in a homey, comforting tomato broth.

Not a sauce, mind you. Some say bouillabaisse is a "broth-lowered" a.k.a. reduction-style, rustic dish.

Mom would probably never make bouillabaisse in the summer, but think about it - tomatoes are at their peak, seafood is fresh and light, and it's a tasty treat that goes well with just about anything, especially white wine.

A Times article earlier this year inspired me, and soon after I discovered that an Emeril cookbook I'd been given featured a pretty nice recipe for bouillabaisse, so on Easter I made my first batch at the lake. I used fish I'd hooked earlier that day (some fresh largemouth bass), but what I like best about the idea of making bouillabaisse is that you don't need to limit yourself to a specific kind of fish.

Think of it this way: in my eyes it's simply a mixture of fish, at least one other kind of seafood, served in a homestyle tomato broth with chunks of fresh tomato. The recipe calls for a little wine, so Eastertime what else to do but sit there, throw on some vinyl, chop vegetables and drink the rest of the wine.

Cook it at your own pace, talk Billy Joel with your friends in the kitchen. The result is perfect comfort in a bowl, and it's a great way to use and even exploit tomatoes right now while they're at their peak.

I mean, have you ever really had a good tomato in the dead of winter anyway?

___________

-1 to 1 1/2 pounds fish of your choice, filleted

-1.5 cups chopped onions

-1 cup chopped bell peppers

-1/2 cup chopped celery

-3 chopped garlic cloves

-1/2 stick butter

-2 cups chopped, seeded, peeled tomoatoes

-3 bay leaves

-1/2 pound of cleaned, peeled, de-veined shrimp

-3 ounces white wine

-parsley

I'm going to go anarchist here and say to cook bouillabaisse this simple way. And, for the love of God, take ownership of it and all your food. Go nuts, be bold. Take. Ownership.

You're working with layers here.

Throw a half-stick of butter down into a large pot or a cast-iron if you have one, then layer a third of the chopped vegetables (celery, onion, green or red peppers), a third of the tomatoes (skinned, chopped, seeded), followed by a third of the fish you have on hand (your choice, but go with something white and mild).

Throw down salt, pepper, a dash of the garlic and a small dash of cayenne pepper to your tasting, topped with a bay leaf and repeat all the layers two more times.

Your terrine-like concoction is so easy and simple, just do it.

Three layers: veg, tomato, fish, spices, bay leaf.

Top it all with one layer of shrimp, put that puppy on medium-low heat and pour about 3 ounces of white wine into one corner of the pot and shut the lid.

Walk away, keep heat pretty low, and keep that lid on for an hour.

Before the hour's up, your place will smell wonderfully. When it's done, give it a stir just to mix up the layers a bit, and fish out the bay leaves. They aren't poisonous and won't kill you, but get 'em out before you spoon into a bowl. Garnish with parsley for a little verdant kick that will nicely balance out the zip of the pepper.

Done.

Bonus Points and Tips
-Cut the onions however you want to. I never cut them the way TV chefs do, sideways then top-down, but last night I tried it and... sliced my finger. Nothing like finishing the onion cutting with a wound.
-Don't forget about the extra wine.
-If you are, by chance, making this in winter, take advantage of the nearby fireplace if it's going and toast a little bread. Better yet, have your friends or date toast it.

After school snacks: Jersey tomatoes

Bread. Basil. Mozzarella. Tomatoes. (and wine).
This recipe will not shatter your knowledge of food or provide you with anything new. However, it will give you an easy after school snack that utilizes all those tomatoes sitting on your window sill.

Simply put, get a baguette ($2.50), a bunch of basil ($1), a ball of mozzarella ($5), and a tomato or two ($2), then do some cutting. For those of you with a nice walk score you can do quick lap through a few locally owned stores and pick these up easily. Do yourself a favor and grab a bottle of wine on the way back. Now you will be stepping right into the pages of a Rachael Ray cook book in no time. Enjoy.

What to eat now: Jersey tomatoes

I never really enjoyed tomatoes until a few years ago. There was something about the seeds and the tomato juice that literally made me gag. I never understood it. Finally, after some bravery I discovered the role one tomato can play in a sandwich, a salad, or even just sliced with a little salt and pepper. A tomato can give a nice complimentary taste to the other ingredients in a meal. Now I often find that a meal does not feel complete without a few slices of tomato. Tomatoes provide a delicious taste and can even better give a little lycopene to prevent prostate cancer.

In the last few weeks tomatoes in the area have begun to reach their glory days. They are plentiful, cheap, beautifully ripe and coming from a nearby farm and not a distant hot house. A simple local tomato can cost you a dollar a pound in places like the 9th Street Market or The Reading Terminal. Most of them bare the simple label "Jersey Tomato" and boast a juicy, flavorful variety that easily trumps anything you can get outside of the summer months. In Jersey, tomatoes are so sacred that they are the official state vegetable. In some circles, I would be ridiculed for consolidating all the tomatoes grown in the state under the simple label "Jersey." I cannot pretend to know the intricacies of each variety, but I stand to reap the culinary benefits from those who do.

On your fork this month for people all over Philadelphia and New York enjoy a Jersey Tomato.

Resources:

20th Annual Great Tomato Tasting, September 1st, 2010. Pittstown, NJ

The History and Lore of the Famous Jersey Tomato

top 10 food discoveries in ny/nj this summer

1) cooking ribs on an open fire. how to do it, how easy it is, how irresistible they are in the end
2) mojitos made with wild mint and berries found within a quarter-mile of the jersey house
3) the broccoli at the union square maoz location
4) acorns are edible, shell them, boil them, roast them dry, grind them, make waffles with them if you quit your job and have time
5) asparagus grows wild. find them in the woods, underneath last year's wood-like overgrown stalks
6) bukowski drank vodka sevens
7) bouillabaisse isn't just a christmas meal
8) if you're going to fry chicken, leave the skin on
9) brooklyn blast and lagunitas wilco tango foxtrot. wow
10) peter luger's steak. too popular, but really, really good. people are right, the bacon is the best part though

ok so what is this blog??

We both read food books, eat at restaurants, cook from home, grow food, love food, write about it, forage for it, fish for it, study it, preach about it, stalk it out in stores near and far, and appreciate the hell out of it.

We were roommates in school, we live in different cities now but can both almost hold our breaths on the turnpike long enough to be in one place or the other at a whim.

Chelsea Market, Union Square greenmarket, Batali, Cheng, Bourdain, Boulud, Hunts Point, Fairway, Chinatown, Arthur Avenue, tapas, thai food, wine bars, milk bars, food trucks, cheap eats - New York is bursting with food.

A quick trip down south and you enter a city of sandwiches. There are cheese steak wars and street corner hoagie shops. A roast pork with broccoli rabe or a roast beef with provolone. A heart clogging Schmitter or even a tofu Banh Mi to please the sports loving soul. It's a city of neighborhoods that boasts a diverse cuisine on the cheap. From Jewish rye and German butter cake to vegan cheese cake and Rowhouse Red, Philly is certainly eating, and drinking too.

We have side projects, and we have other interests, but now it's pure delight to join forces to bring you the best of a hundred miles worth of culinary goodness, food fit for all your Sixth Borough food needs.

It's in New York, it's in Philadelphia, and it's on your fork.

An Omnivore Forages in New Jersey

Foraging in Jersey: Hook-Caught Catfish with Greens

By Mike Benigno
for Eat* Like a Vegetarian

Last summer and this, I’ve been thinking more and more about foraging for wild food. Some time off, put away the watch, ditch the cell phone, live off the land. Or at least pretend to.

While it may have not worked out too well for Chris McCandless in Into the Wild and I haven’t read the Krakauer book that inspired the movie, I’ve been building a small library of “livin’-off-the-land” food books, with the centerpieces being two works by Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Blue Eyed Oyster, and Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Asparagus is Gibbons’ guide to living off of wild, foraged food, identifying and proselytizing about close to 50 types of hunter/gatherer treats found right here in the northeast.

At and around Kittatinny Lake, my grandfather used to forage for cardone, a green, leafy weed that grew about as big as a large fern. Staring out the window of the car, walking to get the mail or while rooting around the yard, he’d memorize where plants were and when it was harvest day he’d be on his hands and knees, knife in the ground, uprooting the plants before piling them high on the backyard table. The stems were breaded and fried like chicken cutlets and came off the frying pan like stringy celery but milder and coated in fried goodness – pure, down-home comfort. They were usually gone or close to gone before anyone had ever sat down at the table.

Last week, the catfish were good for hooking. Over the course of the week with a friend, we managed to hook over 20 pounds of catfish, the biggest being a 4-pounder, with several that were over 3 1/2. On Tuesday evening I picked through one of two good worm spots I discovered, foraged the bait and got out to fish the sunset still-water between 6:30 and 8 (the best daytime action). I was on my way back to the dock when I thought I’d try a spot just off a house directly across from ours. Sure enough, I landed a high-3 lb. catty, came home, relaxed, dispatched the thing, then filleted it in the backyard. Last few years, I’ve gotten filleting down to about ten minutes for a catfish, much less for a bass.

I used a sharp knife, a pot of ice to keep the filets chilled and fresh, and proceeded to first cut the head off, pull out the guts, slit the bottom, then cut one filet off as close and even as possible. I got both sides off in two clean pieces, flipped them, skinned the outside, put them back into the ice water, then went back for the bottom flaps which didn’t make the filet cut (two fatty pieces near the pectoral fins). Inside, I washed off all, made an egg wash, coated them in what was meant to be a coating for fried chicken that I’d picked up (a kit from Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller’s simple California restaurant), and put them into about a half-inch of hot stove-top oil until golden brown. I sat down outside with the golden filets with some horseradish sauce, along with a side of mixed collard greens and red kale, cooked in some bacon with onion.

The result was a modern day forage. I turned a few backyard worms into a catfish into a meal on a plate and sat in the same yard where my grandfather would stack up his wild plants. To boot, as I ate out back near the lake, the fish carcass still stood on the cleaning block.

Hey, this is America, right?

Mike Benigno is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed omnivore. He lives in Brooklyn where he can be found fishing in nearby Jamaica Bay with his video camera. He is the author of Lines In the Street, a blog about fishing in urban areas. He can be reached at mikebenigo[at]hotmail.com